Staff of the California Coastal Commission (CCC) had sought to limit the time residents of Lawson’s Landing, a beach resort in Marin County, could stay in their own trailer homes, which they would be forced to rent when not occupied. That scheme did not sit well with the trailer owners, who were “beyond furious” according to one attendee at the CCC’s Wednesday meeting in San Rafael, and wore T-shirts emblazoned with the group’s name, “Save Lawson’s Landing.” Now the Commission is imposing a different plan.

The CCC has ordered some 200 of the trailer homes to get off the property entirely. It gives the owners until 2017 to vacate, after which the spaces will be reserved for recreational vehicles. Lawson’s Landing will secure a formal permit but will suffer financially from loss of the trailer homes and other restrictions. A coastal property owner present at the meeting told CalWatchDog.com that “repeatedly the CCC staff said that they were not interested in the economics of the Lawsons’ business. They didn’t care if they shut them down.  Basically, not their problem was the take-home message.”

The California Coastal Commission is an unelected body dating from 1972 that manages to combine Stalinist regulation with Mafia-style corruption. During the 1990s, Coastal Commissioner Mark Nathanson served prison time for a bribery conviction. Peter Douglas, an anti-property-rights zealot, has run the Commission since 1985. At a recent Sacramento conference, Douglas and CCC supporters appealed for more money, more staff and more power, including the ability to bypass the courts and impose fines directly.

July 19, 2011

The case involves Lawson’s Landing a privately owned resort in Marin County near Point Reyes. The decades-old resort rents space to trailers, whose owners may bear the brunt of a CCC staff proposal that would allow trailer owners such as Jeannette Galvan of Sacramento to stay in her own dwelling only 30 days between Memorial Day and Labor day. The rest of the time, Lawson would be forced to rent her trailer like a hotel room. Galvan told the Sacramento Bee that “To mandate when people can and cannot live in their homes is stretching their rights.” Lawson’s Landing owners say that if they don’t implement the CCC changes, they would be forced to shut down.

The Coastal Commission is an unelected body dating from 1973 and since 1985 has been run by Peter Douglas, a regulatory zealot hostile to property rights. The Commission wields enormous power but at a recent Sacramento conference Douglas and CCC supporters appealed for more money, more staff, and more power, including the ability to bypass the courts and impose fines directly.

Paul Beard of the Pacific Legal Foundation told CalWatchdog that “It’s not the not the type of agency you would want to give that power to. It’s precisely the kind that would abuse that power.” Beard also said that CCC staff were “particularly difficult to deal with,” which Lawson’s Landing residents are finding out. According to news reports, some are planning to leave if the CCC plan is approved.

JULY 14, 2011

K. Lloyd Billingsley

Capital Public Radio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Public Radio, is conducting a record drive, urging listeners to bring in — think “donate” — old albums, records, compact discs and so forth. These could include such items as “The Spoken Word of Ronald Reagan,” a spokesman said, “We get a lot of those.”

He apparently thought it was funny, but it did prove revealing. More than 20 years after he left office, and seven years after his death, NPR is still flailing away at Reagan, confirming that NPR remains the organ of the Democratic left. That is why many will not contribute, even though they may like the occasional episode of “Piano Jazz” or “Car Talk.”

The sarcastic tone and inflection said it all. Anything by Ronald Reagan is particularly tossable. That reveals why many will not donate to NPR, whose outlets are in perpetual panhandling model. NPR even urges listeners to donate their automobiles. They will pick it up and do the paperwork. But it’s not as though they lack for money.

They get government money, and run what amount to ads for business like Jiffy Lube and various law firms. In 2003 Joan Kroc, widow of burger magnate Ray Kroc, gave NPR more than $200 million. Along with the government dole, that should have lasted quite a while, but NRP ponies up other reasons not to give.

Last year NPR fired Juan Williams, an articulate African-American liberal known for a fair and balanced approach to the news.

JUNE 10, 2011

For 16 years Beeman headed the UC Davis Campus Violence Prevention Program, established in 1979 and an arm of the UC Davis police department. UC Davis hailed Beeman as the right person to monitor sexual assault on campus. Beeman also administered a violence prevention program across all University of California campuses. In that cause, the highly touted administrator proved creative with statistics.

In 2001 the Sacramento Bee reported that one of Beeman’s grant applications said that every year as many as 700 UC Davis students were victims of rape or attempted rape. At the same times, said a December 10 Bee story, “the university’s reports to the federal government said assaults on campus were practically nonexistent.”

UC Davis eventually owned up to the exaggerations. Beeman “significantly over-reported the number of forcible sex offenses that were committed on and around campus in 2005, 2006 and 2007,” the university said in a press release. The true figures were “less than half” those Beeman reported. From 1999 to 2005, the CVPP received four federal grants totaling $3,168,923, according to a UC Davis audit.

UC Davis officials would not reveal whether the university had disciplined or censured Beeman over the falsified statistics. She remained in her job, which paid $6,118.13 a month, not including benefits. In 2008, UC Davis placed Beeman on administrative leave, with pay, “in connection with allegations that she improperly charged travel expenses to a federal grant.”

Beeman’s use of program funds led to a year-long investigation, and she was suspected of embezzling more than $10,000. UC Davis police chief Annette Spicuzza told CalWatchdog that “She was investigated as anyone would have been in the same situation.”

Arrested last December 9, Beeman faced nine felony charges of misusing public funds, embezzlement and false accounting. She struck a plea bargain with Yolo County prosecutors, who dropped seven of the charges. She will be sentenced on the two remaining charges on June 2.

UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell told CalWatchdog that the “exact position” held by Beeman was eliminated as a budget measure, and that UC Davis police officials now oversee the anti-violence program.

APRIL 20, 2011